I recently got a call from my friend Safia—another transplant from Tallahassee, Florida—letting me know that our friend, Josh, was in the Los Angeles. He’s the drummer for the band, Look Mexico. “They’re playing at The Echo this weekend,” she said.
“Wow,” I said, “They drove all the way from Tallahassee with gas prices this high?”
“They bought a diesel bus and converted it to vegetable oil.”
That Saturday night, before their gig, Josh, along with other members of the band were kind enough to answer a few questions about their experience.
B: What made you decide to convert to vegetable oil?
Josh: We had some friends who were touring in a full sized bus—they had built and installed a system themselves and we were pretty impressed by that…since…the more we tour the more we go into debt!
(laughter from the band)
Josh: It’s just the nature of rock and roll these days. So we decided to bite the bullet and shell out the money.
B: How much did it cost to convert from diesel to vegetable oil?


David: It’s a $5000 dollar system, and they wanted something like $2000 to install, but we didn’t do that–we had a friend who really helped us out—with the install, rearranging the seats, putting in the hardwood floor—the bus had been used to transport Katrina victims, so it was kind of a mess.
Matt: Our friends, One Small Step for Land Mines, got the same kit too. It was funny, they did it a couple months before us, the same kit, and to have it installed was a couple grand less than just a few months later. Josh: With rising fuel prices, the systems are becoming more practical and more people are doing it.
B: So which restaurants are best to get your vegetable oil?
Josh: Generally, people say Sushi restaurants and Chinese restaurants because they change their oil more often…but we found some pretty good oil at a Brazilian Steakhouse. Places like McDonalds and KFC generally don’t work just ’cause it’s so…nasty.
B: How come?
Josh: There’s just so much sediment trapped in the oil. It makes it hard to clean.
B: How do you clean used oil?
Josh: We use a series of filters. When you pour the oil in, it goes through a 100 micron filter into the ‘dirty tank,” and from the dirty tank it goes through a 10 micron filter into the “clean tank,” and then the smallest of the sediment is trapped —hopefully— by a 2 micron filter before it’s heated up and sent to the engine.
B: Is it easy to find used vegetable oil?
Josh: Traditionally people have paid for the their vegetable oil to be carted away because it’s just a waste product, but now, people are starting to pay to have it processed and turned into fuel. There are a lot of places that lock their stuff up now. I think as biodiesel gets more popular, people are getting smart and starting to sell it. So a lot of times, the mom and pop restaurants that haven’t signed any deals are the best.
B: Have you been keeping track of your mileage?
Ryan: We’re making about ten miles to the gallon—not bad for this size of vehicle.
B: Yeah, that’s exactly what we got with our rental truck when we moved a couple months ago. Do you know how many miles you’ve come?
Matt: “We started at 109,000…we’re at 113,500…over four thousand miles. And we’ve used less than half a tank of diesel the whole trip.

In the course of the evening I learned a couple other interesting facts about vegetable oil and vehicles that use them.

Fun Fact 1: Under EPA regulations, vehicles fueled by veggie oil are illegal. This New York Times article explains why.
Fun Fact 2: If all the waste vegetable oil in the U.S. was used for fuel, it could support only 1% of our oil consumption.